Νίσιβις - Stephanos Ethnika

Νίσιβις OCR ✓ Trans ✓ Confirmed ✓

city

Νίσιβις, πόλις ἐν τῇ Περαίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Τίγρητι ποταμῷ. Φίλων ἐν Φοινικικοῖς Νάσιβις φησὶ διὰ τοῦ « α ». Οὐράνιος δὲ διὰ τοῦ « ε » Νέσιβις· σημαίνει δέ, ὥς φησι Φίλων, νάσιβις τὰς στήλας”. ὁ δὲ Οὐράνιος “νέσιβις” φησί “σημαίνει τῇ Φοινίκων φωνῇ λίθοι συγκείμενοι, συμφορητοί”. Στράβων δὲ ἑκκαιδεκάτῃ διὰ τοῦ « ι ». τὸ ἐθνικὸν Νισιβηνός. ἔδει Νισιβίτης, ἀλλ´ ὁ τύπος Αἰγύπτιος καὶ Λίβυς, ὁ δὲ διὰ τοῦ « ηνος » παρὰ τὸν Εὐφράτην καὶ τὴν ἕω, ὡς Σωφηνός Ταβηνός Καμβυσηνός.

Nisibis: a city in the Peraia by the river Tigris. Philon in the Phoinikika says Nasibis with 'a'. Ouranios with 'e', Nesibis; and 'nasibis', as Philon says, means 'the pillars'. But Ouranios says "'nesibis' means in the speech of the Phoenicians stones put together, collected". Strabo in the sixteenth with 'i'. The ethnonym Nisibenos. It ought to be Nisibites, but that type is Egyptian and Libyan, while that in 'enos' along the Euphrates and the east, as 'Sophenos' 'Tabenos' Kambysenos.

External translation supplied by Brady Kiesling; reported Claude Fable 5.5 translation. Credit: Brady Kiesling and the Stephanos project (Greg Baker, Gabriel Jower, Greta Hawes, Brady Kiesling). Not individually verified; exact Greek input not supplied.

Text Details

Entry	#65
Greek text	meineke (current) · csv_fallback
Source id	Meineke 476.17
OCR	gemini-constrained (gemini-3-flash-preview) on 2025-12-31
Word count	76

Cited Authors

Author	Work / Citation
Φίλων (Philon (Philo))	Φοινικικοῖς · FGrHist 790 F 6
Οὐράνιος (Ouranios)	FGrHist 675 F 30
Στράβων (Strabo)	16,1,23 [C 747,6]

Mentioned Entities

Entity	Details
Νισιβις	Nisibis · place · corrected · Q504771
Τίγρης	Tigris · place · corrected · Q35591
Νισιβις	Nisibis (variant) · place · corrected · Q504771
Νισιβις	Nisibis (variant) · place · corrected · Q504771
Φοίνικες	Phoenicians · people · corrected · Q41642
Νισιβηνός	Nisibene (ethnic) · people · corrected · Q14524112
Νισιβίτης	Nisibite (resident) · people
Αἰγύπτιος	Egyptian · people
Λίβυς	Libyan / Libya · people
Εὐφράτης	Euphrates · place · corrected · Q34589
Σωφηνός	Sophene (ethnic/form) · people
Ἀραξηνός	Araxene / of Araxes (ethnic) · people
Καμβυσηνός	Cambysene / (ethnic) · people
Nisibis (city in the territory by the Tigris)	place · city · Perrhaea / territory by the Tigris · explicit · wikidata: Q7040822 · candidate

Etymologies

Category	Explanation
Borrowing Non Greek	Philo (in his Phoenician work) writes Νάσιβις (with α). Philo says it means 'nāsibis — the stelae.'
Borrowing Non Greek	Ouranios (writing Νέσιβις with ε) says that 'nésibis' in the Phoenician tongue means 'stones placed together, piled stones' (stones heaped/assembled).
Unclear Metalinguistic	Variant spellings: Philo gives Νάσιβις (via α) while Ouranios gives Νέσιβις (via ε). (Orthographic/phonetic variants of the place-name.)
Unclear Metalinguistic	Strabo uses the -ις form: the ethnicon Νισιβηνός. It should be Νισιβίτης, but the Egyptian and Libyan type (uses a different form); the -ηνος form occurs in regions by the Euphrates and the 'heō' (examples: Σωφηνός, Ἀραξηνός, Καμβυσηνός). (Discussion of ethnicon/formation rather than origin.)

Links

Place links	Nisibis \| 📍 Map \| Pleiades
Page scans	e9783110219630_i1712.jpg
Review	Open review page

Translation Guidance

Kind	Rule	Guidance	Detection
Formula	X (AUTHOR NAME) + ἐν + Y (dative BOOK NAME) formula:c795eaabedf9a542	*Translate as "Χ, in his Y"* Domain: SOURCE CITATIONS Rule status: In progress	Matched · high confidence · 1 scan row · 1 occurrence
Formula	X (SETTLEMENT) + Y (genitive PEOPLE) formula:0a6d211492d74a05	Translate as "a X of the Y" Domain: SPATIAL & PREDICATE STATEMENTS Rule status: In progress	Matched · high confidence · 1 scan row · 1 occurrence
Formula	X... + πρός + Y (dative) formula:1a524ea80fe79519	Translate as "X... near Y" Domain: SPATIAL & PREDICATE STATEMENTS Rule status: In progress	Matched · high confidence · 2 scan rows · 2 occurrences
Formula	διὰ τοῦ + «X» (GREEK LETTER) + [FORM OF γράφειν] formula:93bec21ca1d8a38f	Translate as "writes/write/wrote/is written with X" Domain: SPELLING & PROSODY Rule status: In progress	Matched · high confidence · 1 scan row · 4 occurrences
Formula	τὸ ἐθνικὸν + X (nominative ETHNONYM) formula:cfc8a7c494690fc3	Translate as "the ethnonym is 'X'" Domain: SPATIAL & PREDICATE STATEMENTS Rule status: In progress	Matched · high confidence · 2 scan rows · 2 occurrences
Gloss	ἐθνικόν τό gloss:9c5337ad6342cf4a	ethnonym Domain: POLITCAL/CULTURAL	Matched · high confidence · 1 scan row · 1 occurrence

Herodian overlaps

Stephanos excerpt (left) is aligned with matched Herodian passages (right). Colors indicate corresponding overlap spans.

Herodian 1.87

char LCS 37 (10.4%) · word LCS 9 (11.8%)

Stephanos

Νίσιβις, πόλις ἐν τῇ Περαίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Τίγρητι ποταμῷ. Φίλων ἐν Φοινικικοῖς Νάσιβις φησὶ διὰ τοῦ « α ». Οὐράνιος δὲ διὰ τοῦ « ε » Νέσιβις· σημαίνει δέ, ὥς φησι Φίλων, νάσιβις τὰς στήλας”. ὁ δὲ Οὐράνιος “νέσιβις” φησί “σημαίνει τῇ Φοινίκων φωνῇ λίθοι συγκείμενοι, συμ…

Herodian

…ς. οὕτω καὶ Στράβων (p 802). ἔστι καὶ ἄλλη ἐν Ἀραβίᾳ. Ἴαβις πόλις τῆς Γαλαδίτιδος. Ἰώσηπος (A. I. 5, 2, 11 et 6, 14, 8). λέγεται καὶ Ἰαβισσός. Κάραμβις ἄκρα τοῦ Πόντου. Πνέβεβις πόλις Αἰγύπτου, Ψινέκταβις κώμη Αἰγυπτία. Νίσιβις πόλις ἐν τῇ Περαίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Τίγρητι. Φίλων ἐν Φοινικικοῖς Νάσιβις φησὶ διὰ τοῦ 'α'. σημαίνει δέ, ὥς φησι Φίλων, νάσιβις τὰς στήλας. Δάνουβις ἢ Δάνουσις Ἴστρος ὁ ποταμός. ἑρμηνεύεται δὲ ὥσπερ τοῦ ἁμαρτεῖν ἔχων αἰτίαν. Ἄνουβις, κάνναβις. σημείωσαι τὸ καλλαβ…